Main Photo Credit - Michael Neville

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Speaking Of Flexibility...

One of the reasons why many thousands of people dedicate themselves to a practice of yoga is because of the promise of improved flexibility. I would have to say that, while that isn't the only reason I am practicing yoga, it is definitely a great incentive. In that regard, I am happy to say that my flexibility has gotten so much better. Giving an honest guesstimate, I will say that since I started I'm probably about 15% more flexible then I was before and it's only been 22 days. If you go on-line you'll hear a lot of talk about increasing your flexibility. People make a lot of wild claims about what their program can do, but I think that even though diet and proper rest play a huge part in being able to stretch further,there is no substitute for good old-fashioned hard work. One has to put in the time in order to reap the results. I think that my flexibility will become more and more pronounced through my practice, mainly because I am limbering up my body daily. One website even recommended yoga twice a day for optimum flexibility. I agree. Plus 15-30 minutes of slow easy yoga can really relax you before bedtime. I plan to add at least 15 minutes of gentle yoga stretches to my evenings just to see if this helps.The important thing I'm developing is patience and humility and I'm listening to what my body can and can't do. Slow and measured success will follow if I keep doing that. I've gone 22 days. 6 more days -- less then a week and I will take my chakra test. Then start the daily cycle all over again. I'm taking it to a year and beyond, with the goal of taking a yoga teacher training abroad for a month next year in the summer. That's another 343 days to go!